Azerbaijani journalist says he was jailed because of his work

A journalist jailed in Azerbaijan for almost seven months has said he believes his arrest is linked to his reporting.

Farid Mehrlizada, an economist and journalist with VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been jailed since May on charges including conspiracy to smuggle foreign currency. Journalists, their employers, and press freedom groups believe the case is retaliatory and part of a broader crackdown in Azerbaijan.

In messages sent to VOA through his wife, Mehrlizada spoke about his passion for journalism and said he believed he was targeted for his work.

“I have always enjoyed working with statistical data and numbers. As a journalist and economist, it was my job to interpret them,” Mehrlizada said.

Mehralizada says she believes she is being detained in retaliation for her work, often criticizing the government’s economic policy.

Mehralizada said, “I think my arrest highlighted how authoritarian governments like Azerbaijan’s are afraid of the power of numbers and the reality revealed through statistics.” Among the journalist’s criticisms was that the Azerbaijani government is not diversifying the economy’s dependence on oil and gas.

Mehrlizada is one of at least 14 journalists jailed for their work in Azerbaijan in the last year, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. Many of them work at Abzus Media, one of the country’s most prominent anti-corruption investigative outlets.

Mehrlizada did not work with Abzas Media but he occasionally provided expert commentary to the outlet. Nevertheless, he is accused of “conspiracy to commit foreign exchange smuggling” in connection with a case brought against Abzus Media. Mehrlizada has denied the allegation. Both Mehrlizada and Abzas Media have said they never worked for the outlet.

Mehrlizada faces additional charges of “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion and document forgery”. If convicted of all charges against him he faces up to 12 years in prison. He denies the allegations.

The trial against Mehrlizada and six Abzas Media employees began in December. 17 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Press freedom groups say the charges against the group of journalists are politically motivated.

Gulnoza Saeed, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement, “This trial symbolizes how over the past year the Azerbaijani government has used retaliatory criminal charges to largely shut down the country’s leading independent journalists. Have done.”

RFE/RL has condemned the trial and called for Mehrlizada’s immediate release.

“Farid is being punished for reporting inconvenient truths about Azerbaijan’s economy. “Azerbaijan should end this sham trial and release Farid to his wife and infant daughter,” RFE/RL president Stefan Kapas said in a statement last week.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called for the release of Mehralizda and other journalists jailed in Azerbaijan.

“The United States is deeply concerned not only by these detentions, but also by the escalating crackdown on civil society and media in Azerbaijan,” Blinken said in a statement in early December.

Azerbaijan’s Washington Embassy and Foreign Ministry did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

When the trial began, Mehrlizada’s wife Nargiz Mukhtarova said it was difficult to see her husband and the other defendants in handcuffs.

“But his courage was incredibly impressive,” she told VOA. “They were smiling all the while [the] Hear.”

In prison, Mukhtarova said, her husband spends his days reading books – he has about 200 of them since he was detained – and doing crossword puzzles. Mukhtarova said she is being treated well, but without Internet access, she suffers “mostly” from the lack of economic news.

Mukhtarova and her husband are allowed a weekly meeting, which she said she always looks forward to.

“He is doing well,” she said. “His mood is better now because at least he has a chance to talk publicly about his case.”

The trial is scheduled to resume in December. 28.